By Satyaki Chakraborty
Communist Party of India (CPI) general secretary D. Raja gave a clarion call on Wednesday for the building of principled unity of all communists in India to act as the vanguard of the battle against the Narendra Modi government and the RSS-BJP led Sangh Parivar. Addressing the inaugural session of the 24th congress of the CPI(M) at Madurai, the CPI leader said that the combined Left has to mount a decisive resistance against the corporate communal assault by the Narendra Modi government in the last ten years against the Indian nation, its people and the country’s institutions.
The CPI general secretary’s speech was marked by a sense of urgency of taking united action against the fascist ideology of the RSS and the Sangh Parivar and how this struggle had to be spread in every part of the country. “We must be the voice of the voiceless, the organisers of the organized and hope for the hopeless”, Raja said.
Focusing on the nature of the present crisis in the country, the CPI general secretary said “India today stands at a breaking point. The structural oppressions of class, caste, and patriarchy have become brutal under the BJP-RSS regime, which is nothing but the political tool of the most reactionary sections of the bourgeoisie and landlords.”
India is not merely suffering from bad governance; India is suffocating under a system designed to exploit. The gap between the rich and the poor has never been this shameful. The top 1% of this country now owns more than 40% of the national wealth, while half the population struggles for two meals a day.
According to D. Raja, unemployment is pushing the youth into hopelessness. Agrarian distress is driving farmers to suicide. The public education and health sectors are being systematically destroyed. The working people’s rights — to organize, to dissent, to dream — are under relentless attack. Trade unions are demonized. Universities are turned into RSS laboratories. Journalism is criminalized. The secular-democratic fabric of the Indian republic is being torn apart, thread by thread.
Above all, the RSS-BJP combine is openly targeting the very Constitution of India. It is seeking to dismantle its fundamental pillars — socialism, secularism, federalism, and social justice. Their assault on our Republic is systematic and ideological. RSS as an organisation follows a deeply divisive, communal and fascist ideology. It is inspired from Mussolini and Hitler and follows their organisational principles. BJP is the political arm of the RSS and along with several other organisations, known as the Sangh Parivar. The Sangh Parivar shares the Fascist contempt for democracy and believes in making representative institutions like the Parliament redundant, just as Hitler did. Together, the Sangh Parivar dreams of a theocratic, corporate-ruled India where majoritarianism, caste and capital will dominate without restraint, the CPI leader emphasized.
Raja mentioned “We must lead struggles on the streets, in factories, in villages, in universities — not only against economic exploitation but also against the deep-rooted structures of caste and patriarchy. We must make sure that the slogans of “Jai Bhim,” “Inquilab Zindabad,” and “Lal Salaam” are not mere words but rallying cries for a transformative movement. This is not a choice anymore, comrades — it is our revolutionary duty.”
At the same time, he mentioned “we must also wage a battle for scientific temper, as enshrined in the Constitution. The Communist movement must boldly take up the challenge of using science and technology — including digital tools and AI — in the service of the people. We must fight for universal access to knowledge, technological equity, and against the commodification of science. It was Lenin, after all, who told us, “Communism is Soviet power plus electricity.” Today, it must be Communist strength plus democratized technology.”
The CPI general secretary’s address was also marked by optimism. He said the time is not for hesitation but for action. The situation is grave, but it is also pregnant with possibilities. As Marxists, we understand that the greatest crises can open the greatest opportunities — provided we are ready to lead by example”. Then he went on to add.
“Let us intensify mass struggles. Let us mobilize the workers, peasants, youth, women, Dalits, Adivasis, minorities — all who are oppressed — under the red banner. Let us confront not only the RSS-BJP, but the very system that breeds exploitation, inequality, and injustice.”
The significance of CPI general secretary’s emphasis on principled unity of the communists was taken note of by the assembled delegates and guests as the general secretary of the CPI(ML)-Liberation Dipankar Bhattacharya also addressed the session while Prakash Karat, the former general secretary of the CPI(M) and presently the coordinator of the party after premature death of Sitaram Yechury, was present all through. There are expectation that the Madurai party congress which concludes its session on April 6 will come out with concrete action plan for bringing about that principled unity of the communists in the coming battles to fight the Modi government and the Sangh Parivar. (IPA Service)
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